State starts to roll out delayed unemployment payments

January 29, 2014|By Marcia Heroux Pounds, Sun Sentinel

After three months, some 4,900 Florida residents should receive their unemployment benefits, the state said late Tuesday. Still, more than 40,000 ongoing and initial claims remain stuck in the system, which launched in mid-October with glitches that prevented payment.

The benefits were delayed by Florida's $63 million flawed online filing system "Connect."

"Payments should begin arriving on Wednesday," said Jessica Sims, spokeswoman for DEO, in an email. No South Florida payment data was available, the state said, but there are about 25,000 Broward and Palm Beach residents on state benefits that average $230 a week.

Lighthouse Point resident Rene Denmark found out Wednesday that two benefit payments were authorized and she could expect a direct deposit into her account in a matter of days.

"It's a miracle," she said.

Denmark has been calling DEO every morning starting at 7 a.m. to try to straighten out her claims in the new system. The situation has made her a nervous wreck.

"I've already lost 15 pounds. I'm down to 110," the 59-year-old Denmark said about the stress of having no income. She had to cash in a life insurance policy and has been buying groceries with food stamps.

"I hate this. I just want to find a job in a nice office where everybody gets along," said Denmark, a paralegal for more than 30 years who has been without a job since September.

Not everyone got good news.

Fort Lauderdale resident Maureen Shirley, 47, was told her benefit claim would be reviewed until at least Feb. 7, although she filed in November. That's not fast enough for Shirley, who said she and her two children will be evicted from her home and her phone likely turned off before she sees any benefits.

A human resources professional for 17 years, Shirley said she can't believe she may have to move back in with her parents, who live in Wisconsin. "The whole thing is exasperating," she said.

On Jan. 19, the state said the federal government had authorized payment for claims waiting more than seven days. The backlog then was about 58,000.

Florida originally agreed to expedite payment to about 11,000 who had continued claims, the DOL spokesman said in an email on Tuesday. But during testing of programming changes, the state discovered that about 5,900 of those claims "failed to meet the minimum eligibility requirements," a DOL spokesman said.

DEO's Sims said some claimants were deemed ineligible because they reported earnings during their claim week that "exceeded the threshold for benefit payment or they had a re-employment assistance overpayment owed to the state" — usually from a previous claim.

These individuals will receive a notice of determination with information on the appealing the denial, she said.

Of the 36,000 initial claims backlogged, 21,500 remain to be paid, the federal government said.

Another 1,000 claims have been flagged for identity issues and cross matches with the National Directory of New Hires that requires investigation for fraud or improper payments, the DOL spokesman said.

DEO said it is doubling its staff of 250 adjudicators through March to expedite review of claims and payment.

State officials have blamed contractor Deloitte Consulting for most of the system's problems. On Dec. 20, DEO withheld a $3 million payment from Deloitte and began fining the company $15,000 per business day for the failure to successfully launch the state's new system.

But Deloitte has defended Connect, which replaced a 30-year-old system. Spokesman Jonathan Gandal said on Dec. 20 that, in just 60 days, Connect "surpassed the performance of the unsustainable systems it replaced."